News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) Knesset Member Esterina Tartman (Israel Our Home, Yisrael Beiteinu) said she has no intentions of stepping down as Tourism Minister following disclosures that she lied about her educational background. Party leader Avigdor Lieberman also said the issue "is behind us" and that there are more important issues facing the country than what she learned and where she learned.

She was appointed Tourism Minister earlier in the week, replacing Yitzchak Herzog (Labor) who filled the vacant position of Welfare and Social Affairs Minister. The new Tourism Minister admitted that she has a memory problem as a result of an automobile accident and that she worked on a master's thesis but not did receive a degree, as she previously had stated.

It later was revealed that her claim of having earned a bachelor's degree at Bar-Ilan University is not true and that instead she received the diploma from Touro College.